Chap 28
Ianto was running.
He was in the Wilding Wood, branches reaching for his feet to trip him and slapping at his face. Walter was crying, but he couldn't find him. The fairy lights were everywhere and soft, high pitched laughter could be heard on the wind that whipped through the leaves.
Noah was so heavy in his arms, like a huge brick and he was just staring up at him as he looked frantically around. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see anything but trees. Walter was crying and he needed his Taddy, but he had Noah.
Ianto was running.
The night sky flashed overhead as he looked up through the canopy, trying to get some idea of where he was. Noah was so heavy. Ianto tripped and almost fell, stumbling and fumbling with a huge baby that was almost dislocating his shoulders. Walter screamed.
Ianto stumbled to a clearing with a lake in the middle. Something was floating and Ianto tried to get to the water's edge but he was sinking in the mud, the baby was dragging him down.
Walter cried out for his Taddy but the mud was closing over him and ….
Ianto woke with a scream stuck in his throat, tasting the mud.
His heart was pounding and he took a few minutes to calm himself as he listened to Jack's deep breathing beside him.
What the hell was that?
He couldn't settle, adrenaline coursing through his body and he rolled out of the bed. He took a moment to tuck the covers back around his sleeping Adonis who managed to look gorgeous in repose.
He crept over to the bassinet and looked down at the wee bub who was pouting in his sleep. Tiny and delicate. His soft blonde curls sticking out as Ianto resisted the urge to stroke them.
He went to Walter next, his cries still echoing in the dark. Walter was snoring softly as he cuddled the naughty kitten who knew she wasn't allowed on the bed. She blinked at him calmly as if to let him know that she knew she was in the place of power. In his boy's heart.
Ianto padded barefoot through the house and tried to calm himself but the feeling of dread followed him like a dark shadow. Looking at the clock, he saw it was the witching hour. That time between midnight and one when the world is in flux.
Ianto gripped the back of the sofa as his mother's voice came unbidden and he tried to stop shaking. He'd not thought of that in years. The way she believed in the fairy folk, blue moons and the power of the Wilding Wood.
That's how Idris and Eugene came together, their Pagan beliefs honed as they fed off each other's ideas. Ianto remembered the way his mother's attention had changed from the bible to researching the Wicca beliefs. In the end, she thought herself a reincarnated Pagan princess or something and Ianto was the future king.
Ianto tried to find a memory of her in the early days, before the schizophrenia took over and took her from him long before the noose around her neck.
A memory of her in the kitchen, her skirt twirling as she prepared lunch one weekend. Tad was out with Rhia and they would be home soon. He was helping. She was laughing as he tried to reach the table to straighten the knives and forks as she told him how much like his Uncle James he was with his fetish for straightening the silverware.
He found a calm space, sighed and relaxed.
Padding out onto the deck he looked up and felt a finger of dread return.
A blood red moon loomed over the house. Over his perfect family.
A clicking of nails on the wood alerted Ianto to Myfanwy exiting the house to stop next to him. She sat calmly staring up at the moon. Ianto looked down and saw her eyes shining, illuminated by the moon and making her look like a wolf.
"You feel it too?" Ianto whispered and she calmly blinked.
Ianto was aware that he was wringing his hands and he considered going in to wake Jack, to tell him he was cracking up or something.
The trill of the landline jolted him from his musing and he rushed inside to pick it up before it woke the whole house but when he got to it, his hand hesitated over the handset.
No going back, his mother whispered in his ear, what is about to happen cannot be undone.
Ianto shivered and looked over at Myfanwy whose hair was standing up on her back as she felt his fear.
He picked up the phone.